TORONTO -- The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is asking school staff to ensure parents are notified no later than 75 minutes after the start of a school day if a child is absent amid an investigation into the case of a teen who was the subject of an Amber Alert last week.

The announcement comes after a 14-year-old boy, who was forcibly pushed into a Jeep Wrangler, failed to arrive at school Wednesday. His absence was not reported to his family until 6 p.m. that evening.

The Amber Alert for the boy was issued around midnight, and police later said the abduction was retribution for his stepbrother’s alleged drug debt. 

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Although he was eventually found more than 36 hours later, “dishevelled” but safe inside a barn north-west of the city, the TDSB has placed four staff members at Newtonbrook Secondary School on home assignment while the investigation is carried out.

"The TDSB procedure says the teacher of each class has to enter the attendance information promptly for every period of the day," TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said.

"That attendance information should have been entered by the 11 a.m. cut-off time and that would have prompted a phone call to parents."

"Because it wasn't entered in time for that cut-off it (the call) got shifted to later in the day."

Bird said the recent rule change to 75 minutes comes after the board’s investigation found that secondary schools across the region varied on the timing parents are notified for absences.

“We wanted to have a consistent approach across the board,” he said.

John Mallow, TDSB’s director of education, wrote an email to parents Monday about the change, saying that delays in reporting absences can have “serious consequences.”

“I am asking our secondary schools to not only follow our procedures, but also ensure that the first phone calls and/or automated calls begin no later than 75 minutes after the start of school if your child is absent without permission,” he wrote.

“As we have witnessed in the events that unfolded last week, delays in taking and reporting attendance can have serious consequences for student safety.”

He said that over the next few weeks, the board will be reviewing its student attendance procedures to determine how they can be further strengthened.